Cachexia found in terminal cancer patients is one of the common paraneoplastic syndromes of malignancy, and characterized by systemic disorders with anorexia, weight loss, anemia, electrolyte imbalance and compromised immune function as main symptoms. The development of cachexia in cancer patients leads to fatal and terminal symptoms; impairs the Quality-of-life (QOL) of the patients; and gives strong psychological, physical and social impacts on the patients and their families and surrounding people.
Recently, it has been found that cachectin, which is believed to be a causative agent of cancer cachexia, is identical to tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Thereafter, it has also been found that cytokines (e.g., interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, LIF, IFN) also have the same actions as cachectin and thus cachexia is induced by composite action of multiple factors.
It has been known that OCC-1 cell line derived from human oral cavity carcinoma produces various types of liquid factors involved in cancer cachexia. A nude mouse implanted with OCC-1 cells comes to develop various syndromes including cachexia (Kajimura N. et al., Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol., 1996, 38 Suppl. pS48-52; Tanaka R. et al., Jpn. J. Clin. Oncology April 1996, 26 (2) p88-94). It has been believed that this is because the OCC-1 cell line implanted into the nude mouse produces various cytokines (e.g., G-CSF, IL-6, LIF, IL-11, PTHrP) with the growth of the cells, and these factors act compositely in the nude mouse to cause such symptoms.
The symptoms found in the OCC-1 cell line-implanted nude mouse appear to be highly similar to those experienced by human terminal cancer patients. However, there has been no report concerning the drugs or therapeutic agents for cachexia.